Terrain-level altimeter



Dec. 25, 1945. w GOBLE ET AL 2,391,411

TERRAIN-LEVEL ALTIMETER Filed Jan. 24, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet l CRYS. OSC/LLATOR O O I I I I I I I I l I I TRANS M/ T TE? INVENTORS, OLIVER v. PH/LL/PS. RALPH w GOBLE.

DONALD K. L/PP/NCOTI A T TORNE Y5.

Dec. 25, 1945. R, w GQBLE ET AL 2,391,411

TERRAIN-LEVEL ALTIMETER Filed Jan. 24, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 PULSE GENERATOR CR VS.

O O TRANSMITTER 4 45 RECEIVER o (Km 0 b o OSCILLATOR OSCILLATOR 7,/ 7/ WAVE WAVE SHAPER SHAPER O O 5 INVENTORST 60 OLIVER V. PHILLIPS.

RALPH M. GOBLE. DONALD K. L/PP/NCOTT.

.53 BY ar" Wm ATTORNEYS.

Patented Dec. 25, 1945 TERRAIN-LEVEL ALTIIHETER Ralph W. Goble and Oliver V. Phillips, Long Beach, and Donald K. Lippincott, San Francisco, Calif.,' La Canada, Calif.

assignors to Leo M. Harvey,

Application January 24, 1941, Serial No. 375,792

Claims.

This invention relates to altimeters, and particularly to absolute or terrain-level'altimeters.

Among the objects of the invention are to provide a radio altimeter whose readings are linear with altitude; to'provide an altimeter having multiple scales, whereby the altitude at which an airplane is flying above the underlying-terrain may be read directly through a wide range of altitude, and wherein by change of scale, increasingl accurate indications may be had as the altitude becomes less; to provide an altimeter wherein indications of maximum accuracy may be obtained of elevation as measured from some datum other than ground level, for high level bombing; to provide a radio altimeter whose indications are independent of the amplitude of the received wave from which thein'dication' of elevation is derived; and to provide a radio a1- timeter of relatively simple construction, .and which is capable of withstanding the vibration and hard usage to which such equipment ma be subjected.

Our invention possesses numerous other objects and features of advantage, some of which, together with the foregoing, wil1 be set forth in the following description of specific apparatus embodying and utilizing our novel method. It is therefore to be understood that our method is applicable to other apparatus, and that we do not limit ourselves, in any way, to the apparatus of the present application, as we may adopt various other apparatus embodiments, utilizing the method, within the scope of the appended claims.

The broad principle underlying our invention, as is the case with all radio altimeters, involves transmitting a radio signal from the aircraft whose altitude is to be measured, and to determine the altitude by measuring the time required for a portion of the waves carrying this signal and reflected from the ground to return to the plane, the altitude of which is then the known speed of propagation of radio waves times the time interval between transmission and reception.

The intervals to be measured by this method are extremely brief, and development in this field has been devoted very largely to methods for measuring these brief intervals.

In accordance with our invention the standard of measurement is the frequency of a controlled oscillator whose wavelength is'known and whose waveform is accurately controlled. The oscillator Wave is then modulated upon the wave of the radio transmitter in the aircraft, either directly or in the form of a wave from which the oscildatum level.

lator waveform may be accurately reconstructed e. g., in the form of a derivative of the oscillato wave. The radio signal carrying the wave is re ceived on the aircraft, amplified, detected, am

the oscillator waveform is accurately recon structed both in form and amplitude. This re constructed wave or fcomparison wave is the] mixed with the. oscillator wave in such phase a to cancel out completely when the plane is a As the plane rises above this leve the cancellation will no longer be complete, fo the two waves will no longer be exactly out of-phase, but will, instead, be out-of-phase by an angle of 180 plus the phase angle of the transi time of the radio wave. A resultant current wil accordingly flow, the magnitude of which depend upon the amplitude of the oscillator and com parison Waves, the waveform, and the phas angle. If the two waves are sinusoidal in forr this resultant current will vary as the sine o the phase angle, being proportional to sin 2L] where A is the wavelength of the modulatin oscillator and H is the altitude of the airplanr If this current be rectified and read on a D.-( instrument, the resultant readings will increas provided amplitude is constant in accordanc with the sine function up to an elevation above which it will again decrease. For som purposes, therefore, the use of sine waves fc the modulating signal is not disadvantageou: since it gives readings which are nearly propor tional to altitude for small altitude change: with a slower rate of increase with increasin altitude, where less accuracy is required.

Sine waves may be generated with great ac curacy of waveform, and can be reproduced wit almost equal accuracy under certain circum stances. We prefer, however, to use. so-calle square waves, i. e., waves of substantially rec tangular waveform wherein the current rise suddenly to a maximum value, remains at th: value for practically the entire half-period of th wave, and then as suddenly reverses and re mains at a maximum negative value for the re maining half-period. If a truly rectangular wav could be produced, the resultant current reading by the use of this waveform in thealtimeter invention would be directly proportional to altitude H between the limits H =zero and ually, so-called square waves are never really are, the current reversal taking a finite time n though the reversal be extremely rapid, and my an extremely small portion of the cycle. a only result of this lack of strict rectangular however, as long as the two waveforms are itical, is that the linearit of response. holds v between zero and a value slightly less than light decrease in the maximum value of readdue to the slightl trapezoidal shape ofthe 'e is therefore not important. Exact equality ween the master waves and the comparison 'esis important, however, and, the preferred n of our invention chosen for description ilrates one method of accomplishing this end. eferring to the drawings:

lg. 1 is a schematic circuit diagram showing essential elements of a preferred form of our :ntion.

lg. 2 comprises a number of curves illustrating,

:omewhat exaggerated form, the wave forms sloped in various portions of the circuit.

lg. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the argement of elements in a modified form of the :ntion.

1 the embodiment shown in the diagram of .1 the master oscillation is generated by a ire-wave oscillator indicated by the general rence character A. Various types of, squaree generators are known in. the art, and the shown is illustrative merely. That shown is nulti-vibrator comprising a pair of matched ium tubes I, each having a filament 2, control 3, and plate 4. The filaments are supplied a common circuit (not shown) which is inded. The plates are connected in pushthrough two plate resistors 5, connected in as, with the common. point of the two resistors iected to a plate supply, indicated as the'bat- 1, and thence to the filament circuit and 1nd. In general, it is advisable that a sep- ;e source of plate current be used for this llator, due to the tendency of oscillators of type to synchronize at the frequency of any llation which may be injected into their cir- 10h plate connects to the grid of the opposite through a tapped condenser or bank of con- ;ers 10, with a grid resistor H connecting 1 the grid back to the filament circuit. A ,icular tap on the condenser banks I is :ted by means of the tap switches I 3, these switches being mechanically interconnected hat the circuit will at all times be completely metrical.

resistors H, and C is the capacity of the condensers I0. The characteristics of the tubes I, including their internal capacitances and the potentialof the source I also affect the frequency, so that the circuit constants cannot be specified exactly. I The higher the frequency, the more critical is the adjustment, and the frequency will, in the last analysis, be adjusted by cut-and-try.

' Recognizing, therefore, that the values given are 1e natural frequency of the oscillator can be ed by changing the tap switches [3. Since, as been shown, the maximum reading of the meter is equal very nearly to only approximate, the resistors ll may be of the order'of' 25,000 ohms, and the three available values of the capacity of the condenser-bank 10 maybe of the order of micro-microfarads, 400 micro-microfarads, and 2,000 micro-microfarads. It is also obviously possible to vary the value of the resistance as well as that of the capacity.

The natural frequencies to which the oscillator is tuned are not, however, made exactly equal to those corresponding to the selected altitudes, but slightly lower, and the oscillator is stabilized upon the desired frequencies by injecting a stabilizing wave from a fixed frequency oscillator, such as a crystal oscillator M. This frequency is preferably made accurately equal to the highest frequency required of the square-wave oscillator, the output of the crystal being connected across a small percentage of the resistors H. As is well known, the multi-vibrator will stabilize upon a sub-harmonic of the crystal oscillator which is close to its natural frequency, 1. e., upon a frequency such that the crystal oscillator frequency is a harmonic of the multi-vibrator frequency. Since the frequencies chosen are all integral multiples of the highest frequency used, it is therefore only necessary to use one crystal to stabilize the oscillator upon any range desired.

The waveform of the master oscillator A, although it approaches very closely to the rectangular, departs therefrom in some degree, and the waves generated by it are therefore next passed through a waveforming network, including at least one and preferably a pair of over-loaded tubes. Each of the plates 4 connects through a blocking condenser IS with the control grid I! of an amplifier tube [9. It is desirable that these tubes be of the screengrid type, and they are shown as pentodes connected in push-pull, with their filament circuits 20 grounded. The grids l! are also grounded through the grid resistors 2|, and the screengrids 22 may be supplied with their bias through a screengrid bus! 3 and resistor 24 froma common plate supply (not shown), which also supplies the plates of the tubes through plate resistors 25.

It has been stated that the tubes l9 are overloaded, and, in practice, the more badly they are overloaded the better will be the waveform. The characteristics of the tubes l9 are such that they will saturate at values of grid voltage considerably less than that with which they are supplied by the master oscillator'A. Accordingly, as the output voltage of the respective tubes I approaches a maximum in its sudden positive swing, the current to the-plate 21 will reach its maximumeven more quickly, and will remain at this maximtun value until the voltage on the grid l1 reverses, at which instantthe plate current will drop to'zero. Simultaneously with one tube of the push-pull pair being swung to saturation current value, the other tube will swing to cuteoif. The result is a perfectly fiat-topped wave whose frequency is governed by the crystal oscillator l4, and whose amplitude is dependent upon the maximum emission of the filament 20 of the tube I9. The tubes I!) are preferably of the directly heated filament type, rather than heater type tubes, and the maximum plate current may therefore be easily adjusted to a predetermined value by means of the filamentrheostat 29.

The square-wave output of the tubes 19 may be modulated directly upon the radio wave for transmission to ground and back to the aircraft, but We prefer to use instead a wave whosefnrm is the first derivative of this output wave. The

modulating wave of this type may be obtained by passing a portion of the energy from tubes 1 through a differentiating network, coupled to grids I! through blocking condensers 30, and comprising the tubes 3|. These are preferably high impedance screengrid tubes, having control grids 32 connected to the blocking condensers 30 and biased through grid resistors 33, as by the cathode resistors 34. The screen grids 35 are connected to the common screengrid bus 23; the plates 3! connect in push-pull through an inductor 39. Since the tubes 31 are of high impedanc'e, the plate current of these tubes will be proportional to the potentials imposed upon their control gridand substantially independent of the voltage developed across the inductor 39. This voltage is equal to i master oscillator A reverses, being zero during the time when the oscillator current remains constan The resulting relationships are shown by the curves of Fig. 2,wherein the light line 40 indicates in general the output current waves of the tubes Hi. In the drawing the trapezoidal form of the waves is greatly exaggerated, in order that its effects maybe shown more clearly. As will be seen, such waves do not have completely sharp corners, and accordingly, the derivative wave, indicated by the curve 4|, does not rise to its maximum value instantaneously. Its slope is, however, much steeper than the slope of 'the parent wave '40, and it rises to its maximum value much more rapidly than does its parent wave, remaining at its maximum value as long as the oscillator current continues to increase but: dropping back to zero when the oscillator current becomes constant.

' This wave, with its alternate positive and negative pulses (the latter indicated by the dotted portion. of the'curve), may be modulated upon the radio transmitter in this manner. It is preferable, however, that only the positive pulses be modulated upon the radio signal, and this can be accomplished, as is well known in the art, by feeding the voltage wave into a tube biased to cutoff. In this manner, the radio transmitter radiates only during the period when the oscillator current is increasing in one direction, and is zero at all other times. The transmitter tubes therefore can be worked at their ultimate output capacity during the short portion of the cycle when they are in use, and this maybe several .times their capacity as limited by their maximum sa operating temperatures under continuous cu: Furthermore, since the tubes are operating on a small portion of the time, the drain on the pla supply is correspondingly less.

The radio transmitter 42 can operate at an frequency that appears desirable, but practic considerations will make this frequency as high possible, even though it is not, in theory, limit to any particular value. Practically, however, frequency in the ultra-high rangeabove megacyclesis indicated because of the small si of eificient antenna structures in this range, al also because of the relative ease of providing (3 rective antenna arrays for such ultra-short wavr In the diagram the antenna is shown as a dim 63 positioned in, aparabolic reflector 44. A ho:

antenna or other directive type suitable for tl frequency employed may, of course, be substitute but it is important that whatever type be used be sufliciently highly directive so as to prevet direct radiation from reaching the receiving an tenna mounted on the same aircraft. The dire tion is, of course, downward as the device is are narily used, but it is within the scope of ti invention that the directivity may be in any c rection from which reflected Waves be receiv and from which it is desired to measure the di tance to the point of reflection.

The receiving antenna 45 may alsopreferab be of a directive type, since a directive receivir antenna will increase both the shielding eifec reducing thepossibility of picking up direct i1 stead of reflected waves from the transmitter, ar the effective sensitivity, thusreducing the nece sary transmitter power. The radio receiver 41 may be of any type adap ed to pick up the reflected waves from the tran mitter. A superheterodyne receiver is not out the question for this purpose, particularly if tl frequency used be the lower portion of the ultr: high frequency range, but we have found th when higher frequencies within the range areen ployed a receiver of the super-regenerative ty is lighter and easier to keep in adjustment, a1 that it is therefore to be preferred. It shou have sufficient amplification so that the detecti signal delivered to its output leads 49 will be fair amplitude even at maximum altitudes.

The pulses derived from the received waves a fed to a square-wave oscillator B which is sul stantially a duplicate of the oscillator A at whose elements are therefore distinguished by tl same reference characters, distinguished by a cent. The tuning switches 13 are mechanical linked with the switches l3, so that the two osci lators tend to operate at the same frequency.

The received pulses are applied across a po tion of the resistor l I and thus serve to syi chronize the oscillator B in the same manner th those from the crystal oscillator l4 synchroni the oscillator A. Because, however, in the pr ferred form of the device only one synchronizii pulse per cycle is transmitted, and because relax; tion oscillators in general do not necessarily pr duce symmetrical waves, there is included in seri between the resistor l l' and a tuned circuit cor prising an inductor 5i], and condenser E I, the na ural frequency of this tuned circuit being ace rately equal to the frequency of the crystal osci lator. This circuit will accordingly resonate the same harmonic of the oscillator frequency is injected into oscillator A by the crystal oscill tor, and thus hold the oscillator B in synchronis as regards both halves of its cycle.

scillator 3 leads :a' wavei-shaping-netwcrk :h isv a duplicate .of that fed by. oscillatorA whose elements: are also distinguished by the e reference characters, accented. The output s 52' connect through a'reversing: switch. 53 1e primary 54 of a supersonic frequency mixtransformer. This transformer is. also fed L the shaped output wave fromthe oscillator .rough the leads 52. As shown, the two waves fed in parallel to the same primary coil, but .rate balance primaries may be used if de- 1 i should here be pointed" out that it. isthe fact output waves of the two oscillators-are thus ed that makes it very important that shield tubes [9 and H! be used in the'tw'o .wave- )ing networks. The "tendency of relaxation lators to fall intosynchronism has already l mentioned, and one of the functions of the e-shaping networks is to act as bufler-stages revent reaction back through the tubes. The l'ators A and B must be carefully shielded to out any such interaction, and in practice such [ding would be carried throughout the sys- As, however, complete shielding 'isstandard' :tice in high-frequency circuits, such complete [ding has not been indicated in the drawings, ough the shielding of the two oscillators, re it is particularly important, has been inted by the broken-line rectangles A and B ectively. r 1e secondary coil 55 which is coupled 'to' the iary coil 54 feeds a, milliammeter-51 through a lfier 59. An integrating condenser- 50 is pretly. bridged across the milliammeter, as is dard practice in such cases. I 1 use, the two oscillators A' and B are adjusted hat they give equal output of a definite or .dard value. This may be done bymeans of filament rheostat 29, 29,'and will 'be' accom ied if each oscillator, operating alone, with other tie-energized, gives a predetermined .ing on the milliammeter '51. This reading be nearly half scale, and would be exactly scale if the wave form were truly rectangular ead of trapezoidal. If desired, separate melg circuits may be provided for the purpose. 1 this condition obtained, it is'obvious that oscillator B will deliver to the mixing circuit ave 6| (Fig. 2) which is identical with the e 40 of the oscillator A with the exception of ase angle If the aircraft be on the ground, the refiectingsurface immediately adjacent two antennae, the phase angle will be 'vanlgly small, but as the plane rises, so that the sit time of the wave from the transmitter round level and back becomes material, the e a will attain a finite value which is equal .ther

1is quantity plus 7r, depending upon the setting 1e reversing switch 53. ider ordinary conditions, that is, for measients from ground level, the switch 53 is so hat so that the waves are exactly 180 out-of- ;e when the altitudeof the aircraft is zero. round level, then, the two waves will exactly :el out and there will beno reading of .the .ammeter 51' since no resultant current will flow fin. --.thev secondary "coil: .51.; :When; however. a; finite transltxtime-is' relmiredv tor the reflected wave to reach the receiver a resultantcurrent will flow in the coil 55 which isequal .to. the difference inordinates-v between the curves Ill and 6 I The average value of; this current, integrated over one-half cycle, will be proportional-Ito the area 62 between thetwo curves, and it. is easy to see from the diagram that this area. .will vary directly as 5 until becomes so great-"that the point 63'- on curve 40 coincides with the point 64' on' curve 6|, this area being equal to 2E where E is the maximum current from the oscillator, giving an average current'of ZLE I The waveform of this current, for the value of 1:: shown, is illustrated in curve. 65. As increases the current, peaks oi this latter curve will broaden, until, when =.21r (since it equa s 1: at ground level) the shape of. the curve 65.wi1l be the same as that of. the curve, 40, but with double amplitude. i

The; milliammeter 5'Lbeing adirect current, permanent magnet instrument, such-as a. d-Arson- .val 'galvanometer, willlreadtheaverage value of the resultant current as-indicated by. the curve 65, the negative peaks of this current being suppressed by the. rectifier 59. Its reading will therefore. be directly proportional to 4 and hence to the altitude, up to the point where the; points 63 and 64 coincide at a value of; slightly less than 2m". From this point upto a -2w the increase will be at less than the linear rate, while when becomes greater than 21r the rate of change with altitude will reverse.

It has already been stated that the. trapezoidal form Of the wave has been exaggerated in the figure. Even with this exa'ggeratedslope 'of the sides of the wave it. is apparent from the figure that only a very small portion of the scale will be non-linear, perhaps the last hundred feet of a 1,000 foot reading. Since the reading reverses in direction at the limit of the scale, the indicated altitudes at this limit become indeterminate, and the scale reading should not be relied upon in this region in any, event, but the altimeter should be switchedto the next higher range when this region is approached, and hence the slight range of non-linearity is not important.

It is evident that since all altitude readings are taken from a selected one of multiple scales on an instrument of fixed sensitivity, the accuracy of the reading will be a constant percentage of full scale, which ever thescale chosen. Thus if the meter 5.! be accurate to onehalt of one per cent, readings on the 1,000 footscale-will be accurate tofive feet, on the. 5,000 foot. scale to twenty-five feet; and on the- 25,000 footpscale'to one hundred twenty-five feet; Ordinarily this will be'suificiently accurate for all, practical purposes, but there are. some instances, as in the case of level bombing, where it'is desired to'know the ground level altitude with extreme. accuracy.

With the approximate level known from one of the higher-reaching scales, the exact level may be found'from the lower-scale to the maximum accuracy of which the instrument is capable, since, with the arrangement described,'there is effectively a datum above which the altitude can be measureiatevery 1,000 feet. Assuming, for example, that the planebe flying atan altitudeof almost exactly 1-,000 feet; are

versal of the switch 53 will change the value of i by the quantity 1r, and the meter will then read the deviation of the plane from 1,000 feet. It will not show whether the plane be above or below the 1,000 foot level except as that will be indicated by decreasing readings if the plane be below 1,000 feet and climbing and by increasing readings if the plane be above 1,000 feet and climbing, but it will indicate with great exactness the deviation from the 1,000 footlevel. The same will hold true at any 1,000 foot level up to and beyond the highest range of the instrument, and a switch to the high range will always show immediately which 1,000 foot level is the datum. This procedure is not, of course, recommended for navigational purposes, nor is it necessary for such purposes, but it may be of great value in range finding operations for bombing or, for example, for meteorological work.

.With the equipment and procedure thus described there is one error that has not been mentioned, and that is the zero error resulting from the fact that the oscillator B is triggered by the pulses derived from oscillator A, and that although these pulses are sharp their slope is not infinite. Oscillator B must therefore lag very slightly behind oscillator A, giving the zero error before mentioned. If the equipment be designed for a minimum full scale reading of 1,000 feet, and is carefully designed and constructed, this error is too small to be of any importance, and may be neglected. If, however, the device is to be used for terrain level measurements of extreme accuracy the error may become appreciable, and a method by which it may be minimized, if not avoided altogether, is shown on the block diagram of Fig. 3.

In this modification of our invention the crystal oscillator 14, instead of stabilizing oscillator A directly, is used to stabilize the pulse generator which, in turn, excites oscillator A. Where square-wave generators of extremely high frequencies are used, as they must be where the maximum reading of the lowest scale is below 1,000 feet, the use of such pulse generators is valuable in producing square-wave forms, as has been shown by Fenn in an article in the Review of Scientific Instruments, November, 1940, where such generators and oscillators are shown and described. In the modification of Fig. 3 the pulses from the generator 10 are also fed to the transmitter 42, which is thereby modulated with the same pulses that are used to trigger the oscillator A. The radio waves, modulated by these pulses, are radiated from the antenna 43, picked up by the antenna 45, detected in the receiver 41, and trigger oscillator B. The wave shapers, indicated by the reference characters H and I l, reversing switch 53 and the mixing circuits are the same as before. The only difference is that the pulse, which is of the same character as that shown in curve 4|, is the pulse that triggers oscillator A instead of being derived therefrom. In form it is the derivative of the curve 40, but it is not, in the physical sense, a derived curve, even though it is a curve from which the curve 40 may be reconstructed. The use of the pulse generator has, accordingly, a definite theoretical advantage over the form of the device shown in Fig. 1. Its disadvantage is that it involves additional equipment and hence additional weight.

The zero error inherent in the tripping time of oscillator B does not appear, of course, if the waveform of curve 40 be modulated directly upon the transmitter 42, and the detected wave used directly, instead of to trip oscillator B. This, of course, simplifies the apparatus materially, since neither the difierentiating network nor a pulse generator is necessary, but the transmitter is modulated directly by the output of the waveforming network. It also simplifies the receiving equipment, since the receiver 41, if it be provided with an accurate automatic volume control, can have its leads 49 connect directly to the leads 52', omitting all of the intermediate equipment. If the transmitter frequency be so high that satisfactory automatic volume control is difficult or unattainable, sufficiently accurate results may be obtained by omitting only the oscillator B, and connecting the leads 49 directly to the grids H of the waveforming network.

Mention has already been made of the fact that the broad principle of our invention is not dependent upon the use of square waves, and if sufiiciently accurate volume control is used sine wave oscillators may be substituted for oscillators A and B and their associated waveforming networks. .Since accurate sine wave oscillators are well known in the art and since the only difierence involved in the mixing circuit would be that the milliammeter would be provided with a sinusoidal scale, instead of a linear one, it is not believed necessary to show the sine wave modification in detail.

Other obvious modifications are the use of separate crystals for producing the different frequencies corresponding to the various scales, and the use of other types of square wave oscillators, such as those described by Fenn in the article above mentioned.

We claim:

1. A terrain-level radio altimeter comprising a master oscillator, of relatively low frequency, a radio transmitter of relatively high frequency, means for modulating said transmitter with a signal developed by said oscillator, a directive antenna system fed by said transmitter, a receiver adapted for the reception of signals from sale transmitter, an antenna feeding said receiver and shielded from direct radiation from said transmitter antenna but receptive to reflected wave: therefrom, means for developing from the refiected signals received by said receiver from saic transmitter an oscillation substantially equal ir amplitude and wave form as the oscillations supplied to said transmitter by said master oscillator and means for determining the phase dlfierenc: of said oscillations.

2. A terrain-level altimeter in accordance witi claim 1 wherein the wave form of said oscillatoi is substantially rectangular.

3. A terrain-level altimeter in accordance witl claim 1 wherein the wave form of said oscillatoi is substantially rectangular, and said developing means comprises an oscillator triggered by thl modulation of said transmitter signals.

4. A terrain-level altimeter in accordance witl claim 1 wherein the wave form of said oscillator i: substantially rectangular and including a seconc oscillator substantially identical with said firsl mentioned oscillator in output and wave form and means for triggering said second oscillatoi with signals from said receiver.

5. A terrain-level altimeter in accordance witl claim 1 wherein the wave form of said oscillato: is substantially rectangular and including a differentiating circuit fed by said oscillator, mean: for modulating said transmitter with a derivative signal developed in said circuit, a second oscillator substantially identical with said first meneer-3411":

nedoscillator in output and wave form com sing-said developingcircuit, and means for inting into said second oscillator said derivative nal from said receiver. i. A terrain-level altimeter comprising a [are-wave master oscillator, a stabilizing oscilor connected to synchronize said master oscilor at a predetermined frequency, a square-wave nparison oscillator of substantially identical iracteristics with said master oscillator, a radio nsmitter, means actuated by the output of said ster oscillator for modulating said transmitter, radio receiver including an antenna shielded mdirect radiation from said transmitter but eptive to reflected radiation therefrom, means injecting a modulation-component from said eiverinto said comparison oscillator to stabilize :same at the frequency of said master oscillator :l in phase dependent on the transit time of liati'on' from said transmitter reflected tosaid :eiver, a 'mixingcircuit connected tothe outis of both of said oscillators, and means for asuring the meanamplitude of the resultant the mixed oscillations from said oscillators. A terrain-level altimeter-in accordance with im 6 including modulating means comprising differentiating circuit for supplying pulses led with the oscillations of said master oscilor to modulate said transmitter. h i r i. A terrain-level altimeter comprising a rare-wave master. oscillator; a stabilizing os- .ator connected to synchronize said master oc- .ator .at a predetermined frequency, a squareve comparison oscillator ofsubstantially idenal characteristics with said master oscillator, :adio transmitter, means for modulating'said .nsmitter with pulses synchronous with 1 rersals of current from said master oscillator, a lio receiver including. an antenna shielded from ect radiation from said transmitter but recep e to reflected radiation therefrom, means for ecting a modulation component from said rever into saidcomparison oscillator to stabilize a sameat the frequency of said master oscil or and-in-phase dependent on the-transit time radiation from said transmitter reflectedto d receiver, a mixing circuit connectedto the tputs of both of said oscillators; and meansfor :asuring the meanamplitude of the resultant the mixed oscillations from said oscillators.

l-. A terrain-level altimeter in accordanc'ewith ,im 8 including means-for stabilizing said oscilors at a plurality of integrally related subrmonics of'the frequency of said stabilizing os- .ator.

[0. A terrain-level indicator in accordance sh claim 8 including means for reversing'the ative phases of said master oscillator and said nparison oscillator.

L1; A terrain-level altimeter in accordance 1h claim 8 including amplitude measuring eans Comp a linear current meter con- :ted to said mixing circuit, and a rectifier in ies therewith.

L2. The method of determining thedistance ;Ween an aircraft and the surface beneath it ichcomprises the steps of generating an oscilion of predetermined wave form; wave length d amplitude, modulatin a radio wave in acdance with said oscillation, transmitting said ve from said aircraft toward said surface, reving on said aircraft'a portionof said'wave re- :ted from said surface, detecting the modulat- :c' mp'onent of said received wavareconstruct ingfrom the detected modulating component an oscillation equal in waveform and amplitude to said original oscillation, mixing said oscillations,

said modulating component to' synchronize said second oscillation.

15. The methodin accordance 'with clairr'iili wherein said oscillations are of substantially rectangular' wave form 'andiincluding the steps of modulating said radio. wave with a wave form substantially the derivative of said oscillation, generating on said aircraft a second oscillation ofsimilar wave form, wave length and amplitude to said first mentioned oscillation, and applying said modulating component to synchronize said second oscillation.

16. A terrain-level altimeter accordance with claim 8. including wave forming networks con-: nected to receive the outputof. each of said :amp lifiers, eachof said networks including an overloaded vacuum'tube.

7 17. In a system for'indicating the distance of Wave-reflecting surface wherein. a radio wave is modulated with a signal ofpredetermined waveform, wavelength and amplitude, transmitted to be reflected by said surface and the refiected wave received at a. point in predetermined position relation to the point of wave transmission, the improvement comprising the steps of detecting the modulating component of the received wave, reconstructing from the-detected modulating component -'a signal equal waveform-and amplitude to the original signal, mixing said signals, and determiningfrom the phase difference of said signals asmeasuredby the value-of the resultant; mixed signals, the distance of said refleeting surface. a a r e 18. The method of determining the distance between a radio transmitting and receiving lo cation and a radio wave reflecting surface which comprises the steps of generating an'oscillation of substantially rectangular waveform, modulat ing a radio wave in accordance with said oscillation, transmitting said wave from said location toward said surface, receiving at said location a portion of said wave reflected from said surface, detecting the modulating component of said re-' ceived wave, mixing said received modulating component with the original transmitter-modu lating oscillations, and determining .from' the phase difference of the mixed currents the dis-' tance of said surface. j Y j 19. The method of determining the distance between a radio wave transmitting and receiving location and a radio wave reflecting surface which comprise generating an oscillation of predetermined waveform, wavelength and amplitude, modulating a radio wave in accordance with said oscillation, transmitting said wave from saidlocation toward said surface, receiving at said locationa portion of said wave refiected'fromsaid surface, detecting the modulatingicomponent, of

wave from said location toward said surface, receiving at said location a portion of said wave reflected from said surface, detecting the modulating component of said received wave, reconstructin from the detected modulating component an oscillation equal in waveform and amplitude to said original oscillation, mixing said oscillations, and determining from the phase difference of said oscillations as measured by the 10 value of the resultant mixed oscillations the altitude of said surface.

RALPH W. GOBLE. OLIVER V. PHILLIPS. DONALD K. LIPPINCOIT. 

